Trouble in School: part 8

This being the eighth in my series about troubles I had in school, and with several more to come, I don’t want you to get the impression that school was an all-bad experience for me. There were many good times during those years. But I formed only one lasting acquaintanceship. There probably would have been many more, but I left town and never went back except to visit family.

Mrs. H.S. Prin was my junior high school Social Studies teacher and one of my morning paper route customers.

The Minneapolis Star evening paper from the day before, and the Minneapolis Tribune, “Trib”, morning paper were delivered to some customers every morning. I delivered both papers to Mrs. and Mr. H.S. Prin weekday mornings and the “Trib” on Sundays. ¹The newspapers merged in 1987 and became the Minnesota Star Tribune in 2024.

I didn’t feel well but was up before six so I wouldn’t have to pay a sub two or three times what I made and delivered all the papers before my mother let me go back to bed. I missed my morning classes, including Social Studies taught by Mrs. H.S. Prin.

I became fully recovered and went to my afternoon classes and a basketball game in the evening. It was the same scenario the next day. But I got – you know what I’m talking about – when I went to Social Studies class on Friday morning.

Mrs. H.S. Prin saw me at the basketball game and gave a truancy note to Mr. J.H. Principal. I had a week of after school detention and was not allowed to attend the next two home basketball games.

That wasn’t too bad, because I didn’t really like basketball anyway, and I could do homework or read during detention. Any guess what I chose to do?

PS: Mrs. and Mr. H.S. Prin still gave me a twenty-five-cent tip when I collected weekly for the newspaper when a dime or less tip was more common.